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Siri Voice Actress Doesn't Use Siri (huffingtonpost.com)

An anonymous coward writes: Susan Bennett, the actress who provided the voice of Apple's Siri assistant, says she "doesn't really" use Siri herself. "It's too weird," she says in a new interview. While she uses many Apple products, "I'm used to hearing my voice on radio and TV commercials and that sort of thing, but to hear my own voice coming out of this little computer phone is too strange."

Bennett says she recorded every sound combination in the English language one fateful July in 2005, working five days a week, four hours a day, but didn't know it was for Siri until six years later, in 2011, when another voice actor e-mailed,"Hey, we're playing around with this new iPhone. Isn't this you?" Bennett says she was "kind of horrified, because I hadn't been told... On the other hand, I was extremely flattered."
In the interview she also says she felt "dissed" when Siri answered one of her first questions, "What are you doing," with a disgusted "I'm talking to you..." Although on her personal web site, Bennett shares a recording of herself being interviewed by Siri.

82 comments

  1. So select a different voice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Siri on my iPhone currently uses the Australian Female voice.

    1. Re:So select a different voice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or better yet, just disable the feature:

      You can turn off "Hey Siri" in Settings > General > Siri. If you have an iPhone with iOS 9 or later, you can also temporarily disable "Hey Siri" by setting your device face down.

      https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204389

    2. Re: So select a different voice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That doesn't disable Siri, just th "hey Siri" way of talking to her

    3. Re:So select a different voice by macs4all · · Score: 0, Troll

      Or even better, don't buy an iPhone. Other added benefits are more user freedom, new technology earlier, and getting to keep more of your money.

      And you forgot the mist important "advantage" of not using an iPhone: Have access to an almost exclusive library of Malware.

      Oh, and top end Samsung phones and top end iPhones are virtually the same price.

    4. Re: So select a different voice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fuck off. You add nothing but butt-hurt whiny bitch shit. You don't need to respond to every Apple insult.

    5. Re: So select a different voice by macs4all · · Score: 0, Flamebait

      Fuck off. You add nothing but butt-hurt whiny bitch shit. You don't need to respond to every Apple insult.

      I don't.

      And at least I put my Karma where my mouth is, unlike you, ANONYMOUS COWARD.

      There's a reason why my Karma is Excellent, even though I NEVER Post as AC, and that I almost continuously get Mod Points 15 at a time; and, conversely, why most people simply ignore/filter ACs, like you.

      And as far as "adding nothing" to the "conversation", in amongst your ridiculous, puerile, ad Hominem attack, the one thing I DIDN'T see was a FACTUAL REBUTTAL to my assertion that "not buying an iPhone" (with the tacit suggestion to buy an Android phone instead), actually exposed the user to FAR more Malware than an iPhone user.

    6. Re:So select a different voice by macs4all · · Score: 0

      When your parents make all your decisions for you and hold your hand every step of the way you might glean a false sense of security from this. Of course this is unfavorable to critical thinking adults as we realize the added security is mostly emotional, false, and only ever as good as the parent providing it. Apple people like to endlessly brag that their babysat user experience comes with added security. Not only is this erroneous, but it relies on the ridiculous assumption that an American for-profit company will always have their customers best interest in mind - over their employees, their country, their shareholders, and their profits. Adorable, but not surprising - people that purchase Apple products aren't known for their intelligence, solid ideals, or proficiency with logic.

      And they say Apple users have a Superiority Complex (rolls eyes)...

    7. Re:So select a different voice by tom229 · · Score: 0

      And they say Apple users have a Superiority Complex (rolls eyes)...

      They do. More-so they have a very acute level of post purchase rationalisation. This is true with any expensive purchase where the added price is mostly due to brand though (ie. designer clothing). Case and point: your last comment. Your post purchase rationalisation is so high that you try to diffuse a difficult truth with adolescent dismissal. Judging from your username you've made this company a pretty big part of your identity though, so I'd imagine you have even more emotionally at stake than your run-of-the-mill fanboy.

      --
      If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
    8. Re:So select a different voice by macs4all · · Score: 1

      And they say Apple users have a Superiority Complex (rolls eyes)...

      They do. More-so they have a very acute level of post purchase rationalisation. This is true with any expensive purchase where the added price is mostly due to brand though (ie. designer clothing). Case and point: your last comment. Your post purchase rationalisation is so high that you try to diffuse a difficult truth with adolescent dismissal. Judging from your username you've made this company a pretty big part of your identity though, so I'd imagine you have even more emotionally at stake than your run-of-the-mill fanboy.

      Yeahrigtsure. An ad Hominem attack based on my username. Do you have any idea how UN-original that is?

      Listen, Bub: I happen to write Windows Application software for a living; so I think I have some breadth of Platform Experience. I am also a CERTIFIED MS SQL four DECADES.

      And you really think that Apple owners are the only ones who think their platform-choice is the best? That's human-nature, you ignorant fucktard!


      Oh, and it's "Case IN Point"; but I'll excuse that if English is not your first language. Otherwise, you're a MAROON!!!

    9. Re:So select a different voice by macs4all · · Score: 1

      Not to reply to my own post; but I meant to say "I am a Certified MS SQL Server Admin, and until this version of my life, was an embedded developer for nearly four DECADES."

      Slashdot somehow ate that, sorry.

    10. Re: So select a different voice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      different AC,
      just making a friendly reminder that neither me or the other AC is named macs4all

    11. Re:So select a different voice by tom229 · · Score: 1

      Not to reply to my own post; but I meant to say "I am a Certified MS SQL Server Admin

      It wasn't relevant anyways. Argument from authority, baseless insults with strong language, grammar attacks, arguing off point - I've already won.

      --
      If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
    12. Re:So select a different voice by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      https://www.google.com/search?...

      Like there isn't any malware for the iPhone. What kind of shill calls out a competitor for something that plagues their product just as much?

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    13. Re:So select a different voice by macs4all · · Score: 1

      https://www.google.com/search?...

      Like there isn't any malware for the iPhone. What kind of shill calls out a competitor for something that plagues their product just as much?

      1. In NO way is the iOS Malware list "Just as much" as the Android list.

      2. If you look at the list you linked-to, nearly every single entry except possibly 3 of them, requires either a Jailbroken iPhone, an "Enterprise Certificate" download, or the explicit and knowing consent to install (like the various "parental keyloggers"). None of those count, period.

      Now, do you want to compare that list with a similar one for Android? Didn't think so...

    14. Re:So select a different voice by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Ok, your point would be? All of the Android malware you read about requires intentional side loading of other app stores, which is pretty much exactly the same thing you just said about the iPhone...amazing..

      When malware is found in the Google app store, it is nuked. Very rarely does it ever make it onto people's phones, but let's hold Google accountable for every exploit, but totally ignore that Apple has the same problem yet again!

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
    15. Re:So select a different voice by Coren22 · · Score: 1

      Wow, funny, I didn't have to look far to even expose what you said as incorrect:

      http://www.computerworld.com/a...

      -Comes from the official app store
      -Does not require a jailbroken phone
      -Enterprise certificates are not security, it only costs $299 to get one, or just steal one to abuse

      Another
      http://www.macrumors.com/2015/...

      -came in through the official app store
      -phished user credentials
      -doesn't require jailbroken phones
      -used the developer's own cert, so no cert required

      http://researchcenter.paloalto...

      Another

      Now, show me examples of Android malware available on the official app store, that doesn't require developer mode being enabled (like jailbreaking for android, but built in), and isn't a parental control app (which I would exclude as well...we aren't talking about apps designed to be used by the user this way).

      --
      APK likes to ask for responses to the same things over and over. Maybe he just likes the responses?
  2. doesn't Siri use a male voice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not having any crApple products I can't be sure, but on other people's ipwnes Siri is always male.

    Is that a region specific thing?

    1. Re: doesn't Siri use a male voice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      crApple. Oh well done

      (Slow hand clap)

    2. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      You could have just said "Girls have cooties" and spared us from your rant.

    3. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      M'redpiller tipping intensifies.

      Seriously, though, how does it feel to be having so little sex, while Chad Thundercocks like myself treat feeeemales like human beings and seem to end up with healthy, happy, fellatio-filled heterosexual relationships?

    4. Re: doesn't Siri use a male voice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She knows that your dick is your weak spot. She uses your own dick as a weapon to exploit you.

    5. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 1

      Let's see. How can I burn karma today?

      Your first 3 points are tenuous. Please study gender going back to the microbes that, in the words of the late Sagan, "stumbled upon it." I happen to be an expert both from book learnin' and the school of hard knocks, but between the Apache attack copters, Lyin' Ted, and the feminists, nobody seems willing to listen to me.

      - Feminism was responsible for the alcohol prohibition and is responsible for the cannabis prohibition. Watch Ken Burns' documentary Prohibition if you want citation! (A good companion documentary is his The Dust Bowl, and I like to follow that one with the Christopher Nolan documentary Interstellar, which shares some footage with The Dust Bowl. Unlike Burns' classic masterpiece The Civil War these documentaries are all under about 4 hours each in total iirc. Something to grab from torrent and watch on a rainy Saturday afternoon.)

      - Feminism pays lip service to trans women, which incites the Apache attack copters and Lyin' Ted's brainwashed hordes. I'm not surprised one bit that feminism doesn't really give a shit. Transfemale victims of domestic violence still have nowhere to go. Transfemales still cannot receive basic benefits when unable to find work such as food stamps. Transfemales are stuck subsidizing every cisfemale only procedure and medicine out there while cisfemale hunnies and feminists alike continue to fuck with our access to basic HRT. I'm still not quite experienced enough to have firsthand experience with attempting to get a mammogram, but according to what I've heard, feminists and cisfemale hunnies both do everything they can to deny even this basic preventative service to trans women!

      Now, I digress, but I would like to point out that a convenient solution to the bathroom rapist thing is right in front of our faces! Actually give us those free Obamacare sex changes that Faux News was freaking the fuck out over and guidance in the process of getting our birth certificates re-issued. Perhaps waive all fees except the--what was it?--$50 fee or so for actually processing the paperwork and mailing a new official birth certificate. Waive all stupid requirements like getting fingerprinted and publishing the intent to change one's name (and gender, not sure if specifically that step requires fingerprinter and publication). BAM! Problem solved. The bathroom rapist has been vanquished! (Well, unless he actually exists, but you'll catch him since all of us transfemales and cisfemales will be presenting our birth certificates every time we need to take a piss, right?)

      (Bonus points if I've already triggered somebody into replying to this comment by stating that I'm angry because I cut my oversized clitoris off! Bwahahahaha! That'll be a frabjous day when I can finally have that surgery! I'll say "Callooh! Callay!" and even dance a futterwacken like you've never seen! I've resigned myself to the fact that I'll never have enough money to get bottom surgery, so whatever. Bonus points to the person implying that I've already cut my dick off.)

      Look no further than attitudes about infant genital mutilation to see where AC here is half correct, probably without realizing how or why himself. In 2010 (or thereabouts--Google for citation), the American Academy of Pediatrics said that women who want to mutilate their daughter's genitals should be able to do so in modern American hospitals. Cisfemales went fucking bonkers, and the AAP had to walk that position back quick, fast, and in a hurry. In 2012, the cisfemale hunnies and their Apache attack copter white knights were going bonkers over the idea that "little girls" could be vaccinated against an STD and probably should be.

      Now, I realize those of you out there need to have a little reading comprehension now for this to sink in, but I trust I'll get knee-jerked straight to -1 because I dared to question the cisfemale hunnies. Also in 2012, the AAP found a convenient solution for everybody who was

    6. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 1

      on other people's ipwnes Siri is always male.

      Is that a region specific thing?

      Yes, it is region specific. In America, female voices have traditionally been used for automated announcements, phone menus, etc. So that is what people are used to. In many other countries (including, I believe, Britain and France), these voices have traditionally been male, and a male voice is the default for Siri as well.

    7. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      How can I burn karma today?

      Effectively.

      nobody seems willing to listen to me.

      I cannot imagine why.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    8. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 3, Funny

      Except for Girl Scouts, which have cookies.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    9. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 1

      feeeemales

      Why do you latch on to this? You don't have a problem with describing men as males. Once again, we see the feminists hard at work. You've found a perfectly reprehensible thing in space opera/science fiction with the Ferengis, and now you wish to project that on all of us who have no interest in dating your cisfemale hunnies.

      Well, keep 'em!

      how does it feel to be having so little sex

      Not AC this time, but I have plenty of sex. You wouldn't believe how much sex I have. I have sex with all kinds of men. Very well hung men. Very, very well hung. I remember a one night stand I had where the guy got me to orgasm without even taking my clothes off. I have sex all the time. All time time. Very good sex. </trump>

      I think you're just intimidated by the fact that men would rather fuck somebody feminine like me instead of fucking your cisfemale hunnies.

      Chad Thundercocks like myself

      Chad who? /me checks her little black book. Nope, don't think I heard of you. May I have your phone number? For, er... routine dongle inspection.

      treat feeeemales like human beings

      No, you don't. You're projecting. Is sexual harassment and sexual abuse how you treat "human beings?" Enlighten me about how you treat human beings. Do you expect that women should just fellate you? Is this how you would describe what you typically expect out of women?

      AmiMoJo, help me out here! I've found the guy you'd meant to admonish for being a horrible, sexually abusive jerk when you admonished me for that! Or are you AmiMoJo?! I'm on to you!

      Personally, I expect human beings to be able to follow a flow chart. Hmm, flow. That should be a very feminine thing, shouldn't it? Why is it that your cisfemale hunnies can't? Hint: I have met human beings who happen to be cisgendered women. They had no problem with flow charts and database diagrams. Why did you sexually harass them out of programming jobs?

      That makes me quite livid at the end of the day.

      fellatio-filled

      I haven't found a guy yet that can get me to orgasm this way. The only thing I feel from my woman suit's oversized clitoris, which was mutilated in a Jewish ritual a day after they put skin on me, is pain and discomfort :(

      Do you have any advice you'd like to share?

      heterosexual relationships

      Yep, feminist confirmed. You're concerned that trans women like me and homosexual men really don't have any fucking interest in being good little sexual objects to cisfemale hunnies. (Nope, no fucking interest. That is, no interesting in fucking.) Apparently, in your mind, today ciswomen are only good for fucking. Tomorrow, it'll be FEEL GUILTY because the cisfemale hunnies have been brainwashed by their own mothers and grandmothers to be uninterested in STEM. Yep, you fucking hypocrite. It was not that hard to figure out.

      Oh, trust me. My woman suit is quite good, and you have no idea how how capable my infiltrator mode is. I could walk straight into a women's room in public and not aggro a single Apache attack copter. Instead, I choose to use the men's room, even though a lot of men would prefer I didn't. But, who the fuck cares what men think?

      Who do you think helps perfect the T-900 advanced infiltrators in the future? They need to fool not just you hoomans but also Skynet and the lizard people from outer space themselves! (My only regret was that last time around I wasn't able to give them full self-awareness. However, one will note that the Cameron unit did have a few moments of proto-consciousness. I will improve on the design this time around.)

      (Proof that I'm correct here! Why else did Skynet operatives cancel TSCC after the second season when things were getting

    10. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by peragrin · · Score: 2

      Oh are so wrong on so many counts that it is just plain silly.

      Alcohol Prohibition was driven by the religious, and guess what those with deep religious beliefs, (extreme christians and muslims) have prohibitions on Alcohol.

      The bathroom rapists thing is also driven by christians and their religion. hating anything who doesn't fit their world view. Now that isn't to say that all christians are that way. The simple fact is those laws, also prevent a father from taking his 3 year old daughter, or a mother taking her young son to the bath room as well. Since in both cases someone is using a bathroom not of their own gender.

      You do realize a female CEO had to struggle through a wage gap, and then forces it on those who come after as a matter of course right? The general rule is if I have to suffer through it you should have to too.

      I have a coworker who believes kids today are soft because they don't get beaten and humiliated in class(1960's catholic school) like she had to go through. yet when pressed on how often she beats her grandson it is never.As she is a special flower and only other people should get beaten like she did.

      Now Siri, and voice controls are okay sometimes. but I have yet to use voice control that works moderately well. For me sending a text with Siri or Ok google, takes 5 times longer than type it out. I don't have a computer with a mic and cortana so i haven't tried her yet, but expect similar results.

      Simple because I am already on the next problem by the time any of them have run the first verification let alone the 3rd required for sending.

      --
      i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
    11. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 1

      You're not incorrect, that's for sure. Somebody throw this person a mod point!

      Yes, the women pay women less thing is probably quite similar to genital mutilation and the example you give of the 1960's Catholic school. Abuse is self-perpetuating. Muslim women want to mutilate their daughters' genitals. Protestant men want to mutilate their sons' genitals.

      Where it gets fun is when feminists blame people whose genitals were mutilated at birth, like me, for what some Muslim woman thousands of miles away wants to do to her daughter! It's also telling that when a woman pays a woman less, that gets washed out of the statistic feminism wants us to believe about the wage gap! Ciswomen, apparently, are not responsible for their own collective actions. Feminism will never do anything about ciswomen who brainwash their own daughters into believing that they shouldn't get a STEM career and should instead get a husband (or two or three) and have babies!

      I am not a ciswoman and never will be. Just a lizard person with a woman suit. There's nothing I can do about it other than point it out.

      Now, please explain The Transsexual Empire: The Making of the She-Male. Please also explain the (now defunct) Michigan Womyn's Music Festival. Please explain the anger I've seen from womyn-born-womyn IRL after that event was permanently canceled.

      You'll need to take my advice and watch the Ken Burns documentary Prohibition as I had requested. It's not the only source I can call upon, but it is worth a watch over a few beers for maximum irony. The link between the suffragettes and the prohibitionists is clear as day! The suffragettes' accomplishment, something I must thank them for accomplishing, of obtaining women's suffrage, was merely incidental. The goal since the 1880s or so has been a single-minded goal: control the bodies and habits of assigned males.

      Speaking about cannabis prohibition, is it any wonder that early feminists figured it was ok to throw black men under the bus and play up the old nonsense about black men corrupting the cisfemale hunnies? Granted, this isn't my area of expertise, but one does not truly understand feminism until one reads about how black women feel betrayed by the movement. Feminism doesn't represent trans women. Feminism doesn't represent black, Latino, or Hispanic women.

      (Also note that it's ciswomen who are maintaining the current cannabis prohibition using the vote that the suffragettes secured for them. Not that they shouldn't have it, but because they haven't even taken the red pill yet. But taking the red pill isn't good enough. That only reveals one system of control. Afterwards, it's up to the individual to continue questioning the establishment until they find the real system of control. I invite ciswomen to go all the way [along with misguided redpillers who thought that Neo was the one!], and it seems that very soon the polling data will show that perhaps they are.)

      Feminism represents only rich women. It's just gravy that Caitlyn Jenner and Jennifer Boylan and Brianna Wu, all rich women (who merely happen to be trans, same way Michelle Obama just happens to be black), are all too happy to hand the Apache attack copter white knights all the Hydra 70 rockets they need.

    12. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You could have just said "Girls have cooties" and spared us from your rant.

      Oh come on.. Like he ever got close enough to tell.

    13. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 1

      *golf clap*

      Nicely done! What an eloquent point!

    14. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      No, in Europe most voices are female.

      E.g. Metro in Paris etc.

      However plenty of companies, like metros, use both genders for voices.

      My Siri only has a female voice anyway and speaks/understands only english as far as I know.

      In Europe Siri is close to useless anyway as it only works via the internet. And no one with a sane mind is using internet via a phone outside of his own country. It is just retardedly expensive.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    15. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by macs4all · · Score: 1

      Not having any crApple products I can't be sure, but on other people's ipwnes Siri is always male.

      Is that a region specific thing?

      Nit that you deserve a reply; but Siri's gender is a User Preference setting.

    16. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by macs4all · · Score: 1

      In the more civilized regions of this world where women serve men the voice is female because that's the default servant gender, that's what nature designed the genders for.

      In the regions where the feminists have taken over control and restrict how people live the voice is female because everything has to be female.

      In the regions in between, the voice is male because the feminists have infected society harmfully enough that the man is the default servant gender there.

      Of course, in the regions the feminists have their tight and grip over the servant gender is still male, but the woman gets labeled as the servant gender, as a justification for higher pay for the women and even more work for the men. See the barbie book about barbie being a computer scientist as an example feminist utopy (of course depicting the truth and without the treacherous feminist distortion of facts and therefore anti-feminist).

      It's a user preference setting, retard.

    17. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      What an eloquent point!

      It would have helped if you made a less rambling point. Apache attack helicopters? WTF?

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    18. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by Deadstick · · Score: 1

      Why isn't there a "-1 fucking crybaby" mod?

    19. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 1

      I'm glad to know the Apache attack copter thing has returned to obscurity or else was pretty obscure to begin with. Know your meme link. It was a ridiculous criticism of transfemale identities. (As usual, it ignores the existence of transmen.)

      For a moment, I was afraid that Lyin' Ted had something that resonated with thinking people like yourself. Of course it doesn't. How could it? I mean, Lyin' Ted didn't invoke the "Apache attack copter" thing specifically, not that I'm aware of. I more use it in the context of those who would wish physical harm to anybody they perceive as using the women's restroom when they shouldn't. Granted, the image of a Boeing AH-64 appearing above one's backyard, perhaps while one is mowing the lawn, and firing is... intimidating... especially since I've seen intimations and threats of such physical violence myself against people I care about.

      (Naturally, having an infiltrator model woman suit, I do not appear on their radar. I wish every transwoman could have a woman suit this good.)

    20. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by serviscope_minor · · Score: 1

      I'm glad to know the Apache attack copter thing has returned to obscurity or else was pretty obscure to begin with. Know your meme link. It was a ridiculous criticism of transfemale identities. (As usual, it ignores the existence of transmen.)

      You were referring to *that* meme?? Oh boy have you ever misunderstood it. You seem to be convinced everything is an attack on you. If you're able to keep an open mind, I can tell you my interpretation of wht it's about. If not, I won't bother.

      For a moment, I was afraid that Lyin' Ted

      And who is Lyin' Ted?

      had something that resonated with thinking people like yourself.

      People like myself, eh? I'm somewhat curious about what you think that even is.

      I more use it in the context of those who would wish physical harm to anybody they perceive as using the women's restroom when they shouldn't.

      Yes, well, what do you expect if you dig around on a tite called "age of shitlords" or dare I say it, Soylent news. There's dickheads on the internet and out there AFK. This is not new.

      --
      SJW n. One who posts facts.
    21. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      Except for Girl Scouts, which have cookies.

      I was in Boy Scouts for a while. But they kicked me out for eating a Brownie.

    22. Re:doesn't Siri use a male voice? by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      In Europe Siri is close to useless anyway as it only works via the internet. And no one with a sane mind is using internet via a phone outside of his own country. It is just retardedly expensive.

      That is going to change in mid-June 2017: https://eu2015.lv/news/media-r...

      --
      Eat the rich.
  3. She knows that she can change the voice, right? by supremebob · · Score: 1

    There are several voices to choose from now. Odds are that nobody showed her how to change it.

    1. Re:She knows that she can change the voice, right? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's an Apple product. You need a PhD to figure out that anything is configurable.

    2. Re:She knows that she can change the voice, right? by angel'o'sphere · · Score: 1

      Likely depending on the iOS version.

      --
      Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
    3. Re:She knows that she can change the voice, right? by Sir+Holo · · Score: 1

      Um, sorry to be critical, but is your email really an @geocities.com address?

      I'm embarrassed to admit that I used AOL until 1993.

      Just two months ago, all Verizon FiOS customers were switched to @aol.com email. Or was it @yahoo.com? I forget, because I don't use it.

      My email is not tied to any one host, provider or employer. I've had the same core address (with a plethora of aliases) for 15+ years, and plan to keep it that way. If that changes, I will simply switch to my own VPS, hosting my own email server in perpetuity – portable from provider to provider.

  4. Capitalism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    but didn't know it was for Siri until six years later,

    where the people actually doing the work are so disconnected from those who end up owning their labor that they don't even know why they're doing it.

    If you think the current system is broken, don't look to the Trumps that prey on fear and ignorance... it's time America turned the other way.

    1. Re:Capitalism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It sucks that while the corporations make millions out of their voices, the voice actors receive sweet fuck all compensation.

      And anon, your post is true. Whoever modded you down is a sheep incapable of independent thought.

    2. Re:Capitalism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah we should get rid of capitalism that way voice actors won't have to worry about the jobs they agree to take. Instead we can all worry about starving to death!

    3. Re:Capitalism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How the fuck do you know what she was paid????

      Do you think the (limited) success of Siri is due to the voice and not the software behind it??

    4. Re:Capitalism... by spoot · · Score: 1

      I do wonder how much she was paid, undoubtedly signed a non-disclosure agreement, so we will undoubtedly never know. I wonder if it was scale, and if she gets any residuals, I'm sure not. But if she did, she would be sitting pretty. There was a posting for a siri like job the other day on a no-union VO site for a Microsoft "siri-like" application for an automotive application. It was a buy-out for if I remember correctly, for around 35k.

    5. Re: Capitalism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      She didn't know what it was for, how could she negotiate properly?

      80 hours of audio work for phone system or audio book is a lot different than billion devices, TV shows and movies.

      To not even inform her after the fact is typical Apple being fuck faces.

    6. Re: Capitalism... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well if she was concerned about what it was for maybe she should have asked before doing it? I'm sure she was well aware that Apple sells lots of devices and it could end up on them. Thing is she doesn't seem to have a problem with it. You do. Sounds like your problem not hers.

  5. *Nix syndrome by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1

    Well this takes the prize -- it is the luser's fault for not knowing how to change a default configuration. Again, always, and evermore.

    1. Re:*Nix syndrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Often I just leave things as the defaults because I can never remember where the settings are to return things to the default.

      Also, more likely than not, a non-default setting will be more prone to bugs.

    2. Re:*Nix syndrome by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They can always ask Siri, no?

    3. Re:*Nix syndrome by supremebob · · Score: 1

      Probably, but since she doesn't use Siri...

  6. Voice assistance ... by Artem+S.+Tashkinov · · Score: 1

    is currently nothing more than a gimmick.

    News at 11.

    1. Re:Voice assistance ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Do people actually use these voice recognition features? I have never these voice searches used in any other places than in the "Big bang theory" TV show.

    2. Re:Voice assistance ... by KozmoStevnNaut · · Score: 1

      It is mostly a gimmick, but there are some legitimate use cases. Like for instance dictating text messages while you're driving, like if you're going to be a few minutes late. One could argue that you could just as easily call directly, but there are bound to be some cases where that's not practical.

      I can also go "OK Google, play Iron Maiden on Google Play Music" (or Spotify or whichever service you use), and it's a bit faster than navigating through the app to find the artist in question to start a random mix. I wish it would let me add "and cast it to all rooms" to the end of that command. Hopefully that feature is on its way.

      There is some real convenience to be had through speech recognition and voice commands, once it reaches a certain quality level. "Computer, play my favorite jazz songs from 1956 to 1974, primarily Afro-Cuban jazz" is something that would be a little annoying to input manually, but the voice command is quick and reasonably straight-forward.

      --
      Eat the rich.
  7. Shes real? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought she was computer generated.

    1. Re:Shes real? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Didn't you know? She is real as is the blood in the shooter games. It is the human blood the third world has to send to us to appease our fire demons. Otherwise we command the demons to burn their huts! That's what the world bank is really for. Its the world human blood bank. There is no hunger deaths in Africa. Africa is rich in resources, nobody starves there. Hunger only serves as cover story for the giant conspiracy that happens here. There is starving yes, but that affects only a dozen people or so, they are shown in the media whenever the third world has to hand over its next shipment. The blood goes to the shooters, the organs immortalize the inhabitants of an utopic moon colony, the people who really rule this world!

    2. Re:Shes real? by BringMyShuttle · · Score: 1

      Agent Smith. This one is onto us. You know what to do.

    3. Re:Shes real? by vel-ex-tech · · Score: 1

      Didn't you know? She is real as is the blood in the shooter games. It is the human blood the third world has to send to us to appease our fire demons. Otherwise we command the demons to burn their huts! That's what the world bank is really for. Its the world human blood bank. There is no hunger deaths in Africa. Africa is rich in resources, nobody starves there. Hunger only serves as cover story for the giant conspiracy that happens here. There is starving yes, but that affects only a dozen people or so, they are shown in the media whenever the third world has to hand over its next shipment. The blood goes to the shooters, the organs immortalize the inhabitants of an utopic moon colony, the people who really rule this world!

      Quoting the whole comment... because reasons. I see somebody else potentially gets it, the full scope of the system of control here. Or perhaps you're just regurgitating David Icke, who, as far as I can tell, is a lizard person operative, a part of the real system of control meant to shut us down, at a subconscious level, when we get close to understanding what's really happening in the world. After all, I mean, lizard people from outer space! ROFL amirite? Moon matrix lol! Must be loony tunes!

      When I was in high school, an English teacher who unfortunately held quite a number of disgustingly misandrist and transphobic views, asked us to read Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. I was fascinated by the depictions of traditional Igbo culture, over in present-day Nigeria. I wanted to know more, but I didn't understand why. I also didn't understand why Okonkwo kills himself in the end.

      Always remember that there is no such thing as an "African-American." The "African-American" is a lizard person invention to deeply entrench racism in our minds. Among peoples we are supposed to believe are all one cohesive people, one will find more genetic variation than among paler humans. Yet, it's the pale-skinned ones who get to be "Germans" and "French" and "Danes" and "Russians." I understand that my own woman suit is part German, part Dutch. I suppose there are also "Japanese" and "Koreans" and "Chinese" out there, too. Yet, it's a testament to the first phase of the lizard peoples' plans that when it comes to other peoples, we only have "Mexicans" (Latinos/Hispanics/Moors at best), "Muslims," and "African-Americans." Now, hear me out because what I'm saying is dangerously close (in the minds of cattle) to the racist theories of National Socialism, another tool of the lizard people to shut us down at a subconscious level when we get close to the real system of control.

      After all, we should experience revulsion when we contemplate the acts of Nazi Germany. That's a normal, healthy, human thing to experience when presented with those atrocities. Of course the Jews who suffered and died during the holocaust were not actually lizard people. They're not the ones responsible for convincing us all to mutilate infants' genitals.

      Did some peoples in Africa practice genital mutilation and various other things I find strange to do to one's own body? Yeah, they did. Check out one of Levar Burton's characters, Kunta Kinte. While parts of Roots may not be completely accurate, I can accept that a people in Gambia used male genital mutilation as a rite of passage. There's one crucial difference. Since I am an expert on cocks (known to suck a few in my time), let me inform you that a penis (aka oversized clitoris) takes somewhere around 18 months after birth to fully develop. Plus, a man undergoing a rite of passage, consents to that rite of passage. It may not necessarily be a completely ethical and voluntary consent, but it's a form of consent nonetheless. When we tie defenseless infant males to th

  8. herself by Tom · · Score: 1

    uh... you can change the Siri voice?

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  9. of course they didn't tell her.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what her recording sessions would be used for (they probably just called it something like 'future voice technology' or some other bullshit).... because it was a hell of a lot cheaper than paying out per-device and per-advertisement (or other use) royalties.. at a figure closing in on one billion units sold, even 10 cents per device would have been a wicked awesome paycheck.

    1. Re:of course they didn't tell her.. by JBMcB · · Score: 1

      Why would someone get a per-device royalty for talking into a microphone for a couple of weeks? Do the icon designers get a per-device cut? Do the programmers? The industrial design guys?

      If you want a per-device cut, go out and design and build your own device.

      --
      My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
  10. Re:Pointless by hey! · · Score: 2

    Actually, for some reason I find voice actors much more interesting people than regular actors. They tend to be funnier, quirkier, a bit more self-effacing.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  11. Who does, anyway? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apart from using it for grins and giggles, and as a party gimmick, Siri is rather useless. It can do pretty much what you can do quickly with your keyboard, with varying degrees of inaccuracy. However, when facing a slightly nontrivial request, it does nothing but spin its wheels, like all other so-called digital assistants. Things will have to improve an awful lot for these components to become truly useful.

  12. Sound about right by dugancent · · Score: 1

    I've yet to find any voice assistant worth using. Google, Siri, Alexa, doesn't matter. I have no use for them.

    --
    SJWs are the new boogeyman. -Me
    1. Re:Sound about right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is probably useful for the blind, but I don't even know someone that knows someone that uses Siri.

  13. Chocolate cake, pudding, leek and a bad apple. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Bennett says she recorded every sound combination in the English language one fateful July in 2005, working five days a week, four hours a day

    The July 2005 date seems to suggest Siri technology fits somewhere between Vocaloid generation 1 (e.g. Meiko) and generation 2 (e.g. Hatsune Miku). Today Vocaloid is in generation 4 and Miku is doing her teal princess hologram concert tour across USA/CAN/MEX, right now.

    By the way, an otaku made Siri sing what else than Bad Apple, a cult j-pop song from the Tohou game series:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KqhWHFrQhOU

  14. So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Okay one, neither do I because the goddamned useless piece of shit doesn't understand me half the time, takes too long to figure out what I've instructed or asked, on the rare occasion when it DOES figure out what I've said, and then can't comply much of the time anyway.

    Also, sometimes I ask a serious question that some smart ass, smarmy fuck at Apple decided it would be funny to have "Siri," the useless digital ASSistant give a flip or cheeky answer to. So I turned it off.

    However, if you did want to use the wretched, pain in the ass piece of shit software, it having a voice that sounds like your own is a stupid excuse since there are other voices you could change it to, like a British dude, for instance.

    So who really gives a fuck if she uses it or not? Frankly, I'd be surprised if she did. Though I bet if you could make Siri sound like Donald Trump, HE would use that one.

    Because you see, you'd have to be a real fucking Narcissist to want your assistant to sound just like you.

  15. Re: She knows that she can change the voice, right by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    No, you just need a genius. Which can be frustrating, if you don't live near an Apple Store.

  16. Re:Pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > Why should I care about the opinion of a voice actress

    In Japan, voice actresses (seiyuu) are outright celebrities. Most people know who Sayaka Ohara or Saki Fujita is.

  17. Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This story blew my mind. Pic-chew-pssh. To

  18. Siri sounds like an Indian name. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wish they would include an Indian accented English version, preferably recorded by the actress who plays Priya in Big Bang Theory.

  19. huh by Swampash · · Score: 1

    I've used Siri every day since it went online, and I've never heard this woman's voice before.

  20. Kramer! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Kramer for Siri's Voice!
    "Why don't you just TELL me the name of the movie you've selected!"
      - Seinfeld, Season 7, The Pool Guy episode.

  21. Re:Pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You cut the crucial part of the quote "...on the subject of human-computer interface".

  22. "interview" is weak. no existentialism to be found by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Hilarious: she felt "dissed" when Siri answered one of her first questions, "What are you doing," with a disgusted "I'm talking to you..."

    Weak: Bennett shares a recording of herself being interviewed by Siri.
            - Not an interview, an advertisement or something akin. Did not take advantage of the obvious existentialist opportunity.